SEO… these three letters are enough to make most small business owners sweat! We want to know how to get found on Google, but it seems so intimidating. We feel like we have to know all the secrets & complicated tricks when in reality, it’s actually pretty simple.

Ryan Moreno, Showit SEO expert on team TONIC who started out as a wedding photographer, breaks down easy to follow, implementable steps you can take today to start ranking on page one of Google.

What is SEO?

We all know SEO stands for search engine optimization, but still… what does that even mean?

According to Ryan, “it’s communication with Google. A lot of people try to overcomplicate it… What you talk about on your website is what Google knows about you.”

When done correctly, SEO has the power to transform a page of your website to “make you money over and over and over.” Enough with creating Instagram posts that people can see for 20 minutes. It’s time to put in some initial website effort that keeps paying off for months and years to come!

Unfortunately a lot of creatives who are frustrated about their lack of organic traffic don’t realize how ineffectively they’re communicating with Google.

How to Quickly Check Your Website’s SEO

Ryan shares a story of a time when he met a photographer from Ohio who was struggling to get any website visitors. He asked him to pull up his home page and within 30 seconds, he knew exactly why.

And you can too… he’s walking us through the exact steps he followed with this photographer. Spoiler alert: all you need is a keyboard & internet browser.

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are words or phrases that help inform Google what your page is about. There are a few types of keywords that differ in length and specificity. For example, “photographer” is a very broad keyword whereas “Wisconsin wedding photographer” is a slightly more specific keyword and “Madison, WI wedding photographer” is even more specific.

Ryan breaks down what type of visitor each kind of keyword might bring and ultimately, which ones are the best to use to help ideal clients find you organically!

How to Choose the Right Keywords

Next, he tells us about his favorite SEO tool. It helps you double check that what you think people are searching to find you is actually correct. And past that, it also tells you the search volume per month along with how hard it might be to rank for that specific keyword.

While you can use it limitedly for free, he gives you a cost saving tip if you decide to invest in full access to the platform.

Where to Put Keywords on Your Website

One of the most important places to put your keyword for a specific web page is above the fold. This is the area you can see before scrolling at all. While this might seem obvious, Ryan also has some incredible tips for where to sprinkle keywords throughout the page while keeping it very organic (and not overwhelming the visitor).

He also teaches us the difference between text tags / hierarchy. Google is a robot that reads the page much differently than a human, so knowing when to use an H1, H2, H3, H4, p, div, or nav is super important!

How to Get Found on Google

If you’re looking to play the SEO game & learn how to get found on Google, this episode will absolutely be worth the 39 minutes of your time. Ryan (and TONIC) are a huge part of why my business ranks on page one for multiple keywords.